Targrin Community Well Rehabilitation

Project Status

Water for Sierra Leone

The Water Project has been active in Port Loko District and Waterloo, Sierra Leone, since 2010. Since inception, our program has focused on water provision, robust hygiene and sanitation training, Child Health Clubs and innovative sanitation facilities at institutions. We’ve watched Child Health Clubs lead community health trainings to slow the spread of disease during cholera outbreaks. Communities have mobilized around their own sanitation because of the impact they have seen from school sanitation facilities. Faith communities have found relationship, purpose and partnership in work benefitting the common good of the area.

Clustering of past work, strong coordination with multiple country Ministry offices, desperate need for reliable water service and the absence of other NGOs led The Water Project and our partner to narrow our geographical focus in 2014 to Port Loko District. Port Loko District is approximately 2,208 square miles and is home to over 500,000 people.

The Water Project’s focus is now expanded to new boreholes in areas where previous water projects are not enough to keep up with community demand for water service. We continue to rehabilitate wells. Our anchor into communities continues through the faith community, community led hygiene trainings and Child Health Clubs.

After other water NGOs pulled out of Port Loko District, The Water Project spent a good part of 2014 working to co-develop a responsible monitoring program for those past projects, as well as our past work. In addition to the new work we’re involved with this year, we’re equally as excited to tangibly and provably express our commitment to ongoing community support and service through a Monitoring & Evaluation Program focused on 100 existing water points and their supporting communities. Together with communities, we’re focused on functional water projects resulting in reliable water service.

Well Rehab

Well rehabilitation is one of the most cost effective ways to bring clean, safe water to a community. Sometimes it involves fixing a broken hand pump, other times it means sealing a hand dug well to prevent it from being contaminated. These repairs, and often time total replacements, coupled with sanitation and hygiene training make a huge impact in communities.

Rehabilitation Project

Rehabilitation is not just fixing a pump - it’s total community re-engagement.

There’s only one thing we can think of that might be worse than not having safe water: having safe water, and then losing it because a project fell into disrepair.

Rehabilitation often proves to be a big challenge, as many wells have sit idle for years and there is typically little information about the specifics of the well. A borehole and dug well rehabilitation involves quite a bit of discovery. First, our teams work to discover as much as they can about the initial project. What materials were used? Was the borehole/hand-dug well properly constructed? Many of these questions can only be answered by diving in, and doing “the work” which makes up a rehabilitation.

Once our teams have found the problem, they find the solution. Then, they reconstruct the well and install a hand pump.

Engagement and training with communities takes into account rehabilitation was needed and alters the program to suit the needs of the community. After all - engaging with this community in the same way which led to the initial, failed project will not bring new results. Our teams work to understand the social and support reasons leading to initial failure, and make those areas a focus of our ongoing engagement with communities.

Local Leadership

Local leadership is a lasting investment

Sustainable water projects only occur through the presence of local leaders. The Water Project identifies, develops, supports, and partners with local organizations who share our vision of reliable and verifiable clean water. Together, we build water programs that include responsible community development, lasting local solutions and ongoing monitoring and resolution.

Community Engagement

Community engagement is at every step of a water project.

Our engagement is rooted in relationship and includes involving the community in implementation and ongoing support, setting expectations for water point management and ongoing costs, etc. All of this happens before a water project is installed.

We use a term called ABCD: “Asset Based Community Development”. This means the community gets a leading seat at the table. Before we seek to bring anything into the community, we first seek to understand and utilize the assets that already exist within the community.

Hygiene and Sanitation Training

Community education and self-discovery about hygiene and sanitation concepts lead to improved health.

Improved health is always the goal. This is why all our projects include hygiene and sanitation training. We utilize many different methods for this training, depending on the community/institution, program and country. Training topics include disease transmission, personal hygiene and cleanliness, proper disposal of waste and proper water storage methods.

Monitoring and Resolution

Water isn’t a pump. Water is a service. And, it must be reliable.

The known benefits of water are ONLY true if water can be counted on, over time. We love celebrating when a project is complete and a community has access to clean, safe water. However, the ongoing service of water - making water reliable - is how we know our true impact.

The Water Project continues to monitor our water projects, and we provide continued support to make sure water service continues for communities.

Past water projects and the communities they serve are just as important to us as anything else we might be doing in the future.

Project Timeline FAQ

Project Status

We’re working hard to make sure your gifts result in a lasting water project for the community it serves. Our engagement with a community begins many months before construction and lasts years after construction. The timeline here is focused on the physical construction of the water project. There is also training and engagement work that has already started.

Water project construction in the developing world is hard work. A lot of things can and do cause delays - which are normal. We attempt to make our best judgment of when construction will be complete, but the circumstances surrounding actual "in the field" conditions are far from our control.

Weather, supply availability, government paperwork, and progress of community involvement are just a few of the variables that can delay (and sometimes speed up) a project's completion.

We will always tell you if anything changes. And, if you get a notice like this – it’s actually further proof your gifts are being carefully used towards a water project that lasts.

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Community Profile

This project was implemeted by another partner, but is now monitored and maintained by The Water Project together with Mariatu’s Hope.

Community Details

When the Sierra Leone team arrived in Targrin Community to rehabilitate the community’s borehole the team gathered community families for an initial meeting which started with opening prayers (both Christian and Muslim as per traditional practices in Sierra Leone) where 56 community leaders and elders were in attendance. The welcome address was done by the community elders and they acknowledged their need not only for safe water points but also improved sanitation practices. Targrin is a coastal community of 19,000 people with 40% under the age of 18 and with 500 families residing in Targrin Community alone. Approximately 90% of the households do not have toilets. It is a community of open defecation practices, as many toilet on the beach. Many have suffered much from the cholera outbreak of 2012, with numerous cases being reported including many deaths. At this time, there are five sealed wells with hand pumps and Living Water has rehabilitated four in the past.

The community elders agreed to elect and support a community WASH committee and also expressed the need for more development in Targrin. The responsibility was placed on the WASH committee to maintain their well after the 6-month follow-up.

A WASH committee consisting of 7 men and 2 women was established and members were encouraged to raise money through a household user fee and to set this fee at a point affordable by households based on their income. By doing this the WASH committee will be able to raise money for future maintenance and repairs as needed. Follow-up in Targrin Community will occur during the next 6 months to help supply the WASH committee with one full set of consumable spare parts, which will make for significant time for the community to raise resources necessary for future maintenance and repairs.

Hygiene Promotion

The Sierra Leone team has held trainings in this community several times and has included the child health club from St. Monica School to help deliver the message of proper hygiene and how this has a tremendous impact on the health and wellbeing of the community. The community really responds well to the child health club trainings. The trainings are ongoing and we plan to continue doing more well rehabilitations and also drilling a few new wells one being at a school. The team plans on having a workshop on tippy tap construction and use to reinforce the previous trainings. Regarding sanitation, 90% use the beaches. Most of the population lives close to the shoreline so the water table is high and if they dug pit latrines they would be just contaminating their water source. In the areas that are on higher ground we are initiating these households to build native toilets on their own. But truly the problem of poor sanitation in Targrin is a huge problem and needs to be addressed at the government level, such as a sewage treatment facility.

During the hygiene education, and using a Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach, the team addressed: Disease transmission, germs, healthy and unhealthy communities, hand washing-proper techniques and water saving methods, good-bad hygiene behaviors, disease transmission stories, clean hand clean hearts, tippy tap, proper care of the pump and keeping the water clean. All of these lessons are taught in a participatory method to help community members discover ways to improve their hygiene and sanitation choices, and implement community driven solutions.

Community Member Interview

The team had an opportunity to meet with 38-year-old community member, farmer and fisherman, Alusine, who stated, “I feel now people understand how important clean water is and how it makes us healthy. Before we did not know and just drank water we could find. I am proud and thankful.”

Project Updates

08/04/2014: Targrin Community Pictures

Just a quick note to let you know that we just uploaded some new pictures of the water project in Targrin, Sierra Leone. These photos show just how much goes into not only repairing the well, but into training the community. Take a look, and Thanks again for your help.

07/01/2014: Targin Community Project Complete

We are excited to report that a water project in Targrin, Sierra Leone, is complete. A broken well has been repaired so that it is a dependable source of safe, clean water, and the community has received training in sanitation and hygiene. Together, these resources will go a long way toward stopping the spread of disease within the community. We just posted a report from our partner in the field including information about the community, GPS coordinates, and pictures. Take a look, and Thank You for your help!

Project Photos

Project Type

Well rehabilitation is one of the most cost effective ways to bring clean, safe water to a community. Sometimes it involves fixing a broken hand pump, other times it means sealing a hand dug well to prevent it from being contaminated. These repairs, and often time total replacements, coupled with sanitation and hygiene training make a huge impact in communities.

I feel now people understand how important clean water is and how it makes us healthy. Before we did not know and just drank water we could find. I am proud and thankful.